How a cross-country train ride changed my life.

In early 2019 my father’s health was fading. He had been diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, and his prognosis was certain: increasing difficulty breathing and deteriorating health over the next one to two years. The end of his life was nearing with no recourse. As we considered how best to enjoy his remaining time, we discussed riding the Amtrak Empire Builder train along the route from Chicago to Seattle.

A shared, lifelong passion between my father and me was model railroading, and trains in general. I still have the toy train set Santa brought me sitting in my office from Christmas 1971. As many model railroaders do, we long ago picked an era and a railroad to focus on. Our era was the early to mid-1970s, before Amtrak took over all passenger service. One of the railroads we modeled was that of the Great Northern, which originated the Empire Builder route in 1929. Over the years we had often discussed how much we would like to take the cross-country trip. The decision was made and the bags were packed. Our tickets were timed to coincide with the summer solstice, offering the longest days to enjoy the scenery. We boarded the train with my mother and my wife and set out across the northern route to the Pacific Northwest.

After his diagnosis, my father spent increasingly less time with the model railroad, and I was looking for a way to make him want to spend more time with it – to keep him active and occupy his mind. While traveling across Montana and North Dakota, I had the idea to paint a backdrop for the models. I figured I would start with a small section, and see how it worked. If it passed muster, I could consider bigger pieces. I had never attempted painting anything of that nature, and wasn’t sure I could create anything that could be worth looking at. For goodness’ sake – I’d watched plenty of Bob Ross on PBS!

So, using a sketching app on my phone, I proceeded to start roughly sketching the scenery and planning out how to bring it to the layout at home.  I had a place in mind for it – behind some buildings but where a road was implied to be heading toward the horizon. We arrived in Seatttle and met up with my daughter (who lived across the state in Spokane at the time). Our rental car took the 5 of us to Portland, where we spent some time with my future son-in-law, and then through the Columbia River Gorge to Spokane. The memory of that week is treasured – one of the best times of my life.

Upon arriving home, I made a test painting on canvas paper using some acrylics I had picked up, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at the result. It wasn’t a masterpiece, but it could add some depth and not detract from the layout. Measurements in hand, I prepared a wood panel and started painting. Once added to the layout, it served the exact purpose I intended. Depth and a bit of realism. Dad approved too! Over the next few months, I painted 3 larger backdrops. One resembling Glacier National Park, one the open spaces and big skies of Montana, and the last showing the transition from open prairie to the wheat fields of eastern Washington – all scenes from our Empire Builder adventure.

My Dad passed about 13 months after our train trip. Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, I didn’t get to spend much time with him toward the end – fear of him catching it, with a lung disease already taking his life, was not worth the risk. In the end I kept the parts of the train collection that were important to me, and the rest was sold. The layout was disassembled and is gone. The backdrops, however, still hang in my mother’s basement. It was while painting the backdrops that I realized my love of painting. I sometimes get the urge to work on a model railroad, but I believe the medium of painting something that can be shared and displayed suits me better. I believe my love of, and the act of, creating art, realized as my father’s health was fading, is a tribute to him, and is a part of his legacy. I miss you Dad.

In memory of
James Edwin Brown
1946 – 2020